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Single Idea 18057

[from 'Category Mistakes' by Ofra Magidor, in 2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / d. Category mistake as pragmatic ]

Full Idea

'The number two is green' is normally infelicitous, but, interestingly, 'numbers are coloured and the number two is green' is not infelicitous.

Gist of Idea

'Numbers are coloured and the number two is green' seems to be acceptable

Source

Ofra Magidor (Category Mistakes [2013], 5.4.1)

Book Reference

Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.136


A Reaction

A nice example, which gives good support for her pragmatic account of category mistakes in terms of presupposition failure. But how about 'figures can have contradictory shapes, and this square is circular'? Numbers are not coloured!!!